isn't it?. >> world news is up next. >> thanks for inviting us into your homes toni tonight on "world news," hitting home. families forced to scale back because of another record jump in gas prices, but we found wildly different prices in the same town. so how do you get the best deal? tip of the spear. gadhafi attacks his people again and our reporter is driving forward with the rebels as far as they dare to go. abc news exclusive, the odd couple. why ben affleck and cindy mccain are joining forces. women's health. news about an easy way for a lot of women to feel better fast. and what these elephants are doing we never dreamed they could do.

good evening, and we begin this week with the skyrocketing price of gasoline hitting home with so many american families coast to coast tonight. the average cost of a gallon rising today to $3.52, a new record for this time of year, a jump of 39 cents in the past four weeks during all that unrest in libya, but as we said, steve osunsami found wildly different prices in the same town, so why is this happening and how do you find the best deal? steve joins us from atlanta. steve, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, diane. we did a little comparison shopping today, and at current prices, two gallons of gas is roughly the same cost as this t-bone. the gas it takes to get you to the steak house is now more than the beef. outside chicago, autumn geis-lombardo says it's unreal. in the past two weeks she's watched gas jump up 45 cents a

gallon, and she nearly fell over when it cost her $64 to fill up. today we went with her as she and her children made all of their trips in one drive spending as little time on the road as possible. >> i was really shocked when it didn't stop till 68.04. >> reporter: outside atlanta when they do go shopping, mark and lisa mcintire told us they buy much more in bulk and they drive to the store slowly to help save on gas. >> you know, you got to drive a little slower sometimes too. >> reporter: really? >> of course. you save. >> reporter: you do this? >> yeah, i do. >> reporter: the average cost of a gallon is now up to 3.52. here's who is getting paid. just 2.35 of that buys the oil and 35 cents goes to refining it. 31 cents pays for distribution and marketing, and 46 cents goes to uncle sam. we were surprised to see how wildly prices change from station to station. in west covina, california, this mobil station was selling gas at

$4.89 a gallon, but across the street this shell station was nearly a dollar cheaper. >> i noticed right across the street it's about a dollar difference. i had to come over and take advantage of the dollar difference. >> reporter: we went in and asked the manager at the more expensive station why his gas was so special, and he wouldn't explain why. the experts say that now more than ever it pays to shop around. >> it certainly does. when prices are rising, some stations have already raised their stations, and some stations are a little bit slower to raise their price so it certainly can pay off very much so. >> reporter: there's an app for that that leads to you the cheapest gas at gasbuddy.com and as you might imagine, traffic to the site is through the roof. they say to avoid gas stations near highways or in wealthy neighborhoods. they usually charge more. they also say it's usually better to buy your gas at the beginning of the week or at discount stores or locally owned stores because their gas, diane, is cheaper. >> big difference in one town. thank you, steve. and as we said, the unrest across the middle east is part

of the reason for the rising prices. so what happened to america's quest for energy independence? where does it stand, and what would it take for us to drive prices down? we asked bianna golodryga to find out. >> reporter: every u.s. president for the last 40 years has issued the same ultimatum. >> we will finally end our dependence on oil from the middle east. >> end america's accepted dependence on foreign oil. >> reporter: so how much have we cut our dependence on foreign oil? it turns out we haven't. in fact, we rely even more on it. in 1973 the u.s. produced 64% of all the oil it consumed while importing the rest from foreign sources. half of that from opec. in 2010, 61% of the oil we consumed came from overseas while our piece of the pie shrank to less than 40%. almost ten years after 9/11 and a rededication to reducing oil imports, still no change. >> political will is the main thing that's keeping us from relying less on foreign oil.

we can't change things overnight. we need to bring down the cost of alternatives and push them into the economy, but if we don't get started now we'll never get there. >> reporter: advancements in technology have increased american production but not nearly enough to reduce oil imports. >> the increase in u.s. domestic production is certainly a positive sign. it can't close the gap all by itself. >> reporter: and on the consumer side, hybrid and electric cars are a viable alternative to their gas guzzling counterparts, but they represent less than 3% of the car market. in order to make a significant dent in our demand for foreign oil and, therefore, reduce gas prices, those cars would have to make up 20% of the market. >> not there yet, so is there anything we can all do to bring the price down? >> diane, two simple words, lifestyle adjustment. if you look at the last time we saw a huge spike in 2008 americans cut back driving by 3.8 billion miles. that eventually brought down the price of gasoline by 44%, and i

mean eventually, though. this took over a year, not months or weeks here. it will be a lot longer. >> so don't expect immediate results even if you scale back. >> no. >> thank you, bianna. and now some survivor stories from this weekend of weather. the month of march hurling thunderbolts in the final weeks of winter. a 24-hour showcase of severe storms of all kinds. po postcards from a country soaked, snowed in and storm ravaged. first a tape of a tornado at the moment of impact in southern louisiana. on a store surveillance camera capturing all the angles, 135-mile-per-hour winds ripping open the front door and rewind for another look at the customers who had just seconds to run for their lives. across country in water-logged new jersey, survival meant climbing down a ladder in the middle of the night for several families. all day the rains had mixed with melting snow with unexpected flash floods. >> just a river, a river flowing

down. >> reporter: and in other parts of the country, fresh snow. as much as 30 inches falling in parts of vermont. so much snow there's only one thing to take the chill out of the images, knowing that spring is just two weeks away. and mother nature flexed her muscle in an entirely different way on hawaii's big island. a jaw-dropping lava spectacular from the kilauea volcano, the single most visited volcano in the world. hawaii's most popular tourist destination. lava spewing 65 feet into the air, the biggest eruption in nearly 30 years. and we mentioned that unrest in libya, and today president obama fired another warning shot at colonel moammar gadhafi calling the violence against the libyan people unacceptable, and also today nato launched a 24/7 surveillance program off the coast of libya. while on the ground, our lama hasan was traveling from

benghazi toward the gadhafi stronghold of tripoli shoulder to shoulder with the rebels going as far as they dared. >> reporter: we head out for the front line of this war where the fight is raging between gadhafi and the rebels. a 220-mile journey by car across the desert hugging the coast mile after mile passing through towns now firmly in control of the rebels passing checkpoints, rebels armed with guns. [ speaking a foreign language ] . >> air strikes after ras lanuf. >> reporter: so that is where we are going. we continue west. the batting getting closer. we pass pickup trucks packed with new rebel recruits, armed with machine guns and determination. we see where they eat and sleep. "i'll stay in the back of this car until gadhafi leaves," he told us. "we all will."

we edge closer to the key oil city of ras lanuf, now the tip of the spear in the fight to bring down gadhafi. the battle is close. the charred evidence of fresh fighting is everywhere as is the thud of artillery fire. this is where the fighters are gathering right now. this is the furthest west that we're able to go. just 30 miles west from where we are standing right here, there's a big battle in a place called bin jawad. that is just up ahead where gadhafi's forces attacked today using their advantage, fighter jets to pound the rebels stopping their march towards gadhafi's stronghold in tripoli for now. and for now it is as far as we can go too. lama hasan, abc news, ras lanuf, libya. and we turn next to an abc news exclusive. in the history of unlikely alliances, this one ranks pretty

high. a famous liberal democrat, a hollywood actor teaming up with the wife of a conservative republican presidential candidate? so what is the common cause that brought an odd couple together? jake tapper has the story. >> reporter: earlier this year cindy mccain, a philanthropist and the wife of 2008 republican presidential nominee senator john mccain, got a phone call from ben affleck. >> it is an odd couple relationship, i've had other people say that to me, and i don't know whether i'm oscar or felix in this. >> reporter: affleck, the famously democrat actor who campaigned for barack obama and john kerry, the star of films like "the town," "armageddon" and "daredevil." >> i didn't believe it was him, of course. >> she thought it was a prank call. >> i did. it was a prank call. surprisingly perhaps affleck was calling because he was seeking her help in a part of the world largely ignored by the u.s. which is the congo. cindy, i need a real moment of straight talk from you. when this hollywood actor calls you, you must have been a little skeptical.

>> yeah, i was, quite frankly, because i'll be very honest with you, my past experiences with other folks in the same perhaps arena have not been good. >> reporter: but affleck's work in the congo is something of a mission. >> you look at a place where 3 million died over the last 15 years, and it's a humanitarian catastrophe. >> reporter: he took her to eastern congo where her skepticism vanished. there they visited the local organizations that get funding from the nonprofit affleck set up last year, the eastern congo initiative. one of the most moving stories they heard, that of christine whom they meet at heal africa, a hospital that receives grants from affleck's group. kidnapped by a militia at 14, christine was raped, part of congo's epidemic of sexual violence. she got pregnant. she had complications. heal africa took her in, and seven surgeries later she's back in school and helping other young girls. she wants to be a lawyer.

>> she's a great, inspiring, you know, beautiful young woman, and she's an important example. >> you talk to her. she has this glow about her. i'm not so sure i would have a glow about me if i'd been -- had the kind of life that she had. >> reporter: with fragile gains made in the country in recent year, the two argue that policymakers cannot allow congo to explode into yet another crisis. >> people are dying, really dying and have been for a long time. i don't know that i can make any more argument about why you should pay attention to this. at a certain point, you know, it just seems morally self-evident. >> reporter: and, diane, tomorrow affleck will testify before congress. there he will call for president obama to appoint a special representative to help that region, help that country strategize on how to rebuild. >> all right, jake, and i know you'll have a lot more on "nightline" tonight about this unusual team and the work they hope to achieve. it's on "nightline" and also abcnews.com/worldnews for more of the journey through the congo. still ahead on "world

news," a new study on women's health, something to help with the hot flashes. and our made in america series. we ask people to take off the clothing they're wearing that is made in america. let's see what happens. and amazing elephants. they do something we never dreamed they could do. ♪ [ male announcer ] every day thousands of people are switching from tylenol® to advil. here's one story. my name is jose. i'm from california and i'm a messenger and deliver all over the place. so there's times i'm just climbing in and out of the van, feel your hands hurting, you feel your back hurting. i used to take tylenol. i switched to advil. been using it ever since. and when the pain is gone and you feel good and you feel healthy... work or pleasure, i can go on with my life. [ male announcer ] make the switch. take action. take advil®. [ male announcer ] make the switch.

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and now we have news about women's health and the struggle it can be to struggle with hot flashes, sleeplessness during menopause. linsey davis has the results of a brand-new study about real help and it's not a pill. >> reporter: the symptoms are legendary. >> the worst part is wakng up in a pool of water. >> suddenly you're very warm and you think the thermostat went up inside your body. >> reporter: most women are faced with rather limited option, take lots of pills, hormone replacement therapy, herbal remedies or simply toughing it out, which is why today's study is creating such a sensation. the study concluded that acupuncture, which treats patients by inserting and manipulating needles in the body, curbs the severity of hot flashes and eases the stress that causes. the authors base their findings on 53 postmenopausal women. all of the women measured their symptoms using a five-point scale before and after the

treatment. 27 of the women received traditional chinese acupuncture twice a week for ten weeks. the rest thought they were given acupuncture, but the needles didn't actually penetrate the skin. the result, the women who got the real acupuncture reported unmistakable relief, significant drops in the severity of their hot flashes. researchers suggest the needles trigger the body's release of endorphins which may help stabilize the body's temperature. >> it is significant because it gives women an option. more or less it's either hormone replacement therapy or herbal therapies or nothing, and they can use this singularly or added to other therapies that they're using with good effect. >> reporter: so you did acupuncture. how did that work for you? >> it worked very well. it was like a miracle. >> reporter: so your heat flashes weren't as bad? >> no. >> reporter: take me from if they were a ten before what

number would you give them after? >> three. >> reporter: the 2,000-year-old chinese tradition is already being used to treat other ailments often related to pain. for instance, a study by the national institutes of health found that in just seven weeks, 60% of patients with chronic lower back pain said they felt better. and at the renowned mayo clinic, acupuncture is now part of the standard of care for all patients in the joint replacement center. and, interestingly, they're now doing their own trial looking at acupuncture for hot flashes, and, diane, that's certain to get a lot of people's attention. >> having symptoms go from ten down to three, and you said no pool of sweat in the middle of the night even. and does it hurt? >> you know, i got one of the needles right here in my hand. i was ready to be all squeamish and surprisingly not at all. >> not at all, well, again, the eastern art revived, and it could really help. thank you. and just ahead, our made in america quiz. stments, the plan we worked on for your retirement makes sense. just stay on track. what is... that's the guidance you get from fidelity. thanks.

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last week you met the useries who were surprised after we emptied their home of everything foreign made and then filled it back up with 100% american products. >> i'm ready to take the made in america challenge. >> reporter: afterwards thousands of you wrote us to say it was a wake-up call for you too as you began turning things upside down in your homes. a texas mom and her beloved houston astros. >> china. nothing from the state, let alone texas or houston. >> reporter: miss connelly's kindergarten classroom in south carolina. >> that usa was made in the usa? >> all: no. >> no. >> reporter: so tonight we start the week by asking you to take a kind of quiz. here's what happened when we asked some people on the street to take off everything not made in america. >> made in china. >> made in china. >> brazil. >> reporter: well, take it off up to a point. can you guess on average what percent of clothes we all wear that are made overseas? which ones would actually create the most american jobs and which

would not? as we said, this week we'll tell you what the experts say about the best places to spend money to create american jobs. and we've got another quiz for you online. here it is. are you ready? do you know which item in your kitchen might power up jobs right away? and a question about your car. go on and take the quiz at abcnews.com/worldnews. and we also have word tonight that the actor charlie sheen, so much in the headlines these past weeks for erratic behavior, he was suspended, now he has been fired from tv's number one hit comedy "two and a half men." it's effective immediately, and sheen, who has starred on the show these past eight year, called the development "very good news." he is still talking about suing. and coming up, what do the elephants do that surprised everyone? well, it toured around europe,

getting handling and steering lessons on those sporty european roads. it went back to school, got an advanced degree in technology. it's been working out -- more muscle and less fat. it's only been two years, but it's done more in two years than most cars do in a lifetime. but it's done more in two years desperate for nighttime heartburn relief? for many, nexium helps relieve heartburn symptoms caused by acid reflux disease. talk to your doctor about your risk for osteoporosis-related bone fractures if you take multiple daily doses of nexium for a long time. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. talk to your doctor about nexium. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. how are you getting to a happier place? running there? dancing there? how about eating soup to get there? campbell's soups fill you with good nutrition,

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and finally tonight, we've all suspected that elephants are a lot smarter than we can grasp, but nick watt tells us that there is a brand-new experiment that shows they can do something no one ever dreamed. >> reporter: we all know elephants are smart. they help each other out.

they help us out. some say they mourn their dead, even cry. >> they have huge heads, and the huge heads contain a big brain. >> reporter: but how creative are those big brains? >> we had to come up with a way to design it so that the elephants could work together without destroying the apparatus in front of them. >> reporter: and here it is in the forest of thailand. there's corn in those buckets. >> elephants are always hungry all day, all the time. >> reporter: there's a rope. the elephants must hold either end and pull together to drag the table closer so their trunks can reach their lunch. job done. and if you let one elephant go before her friend? >> this is wanalee on the right and jojo on the left, and wanalee holds the rope quite steadily and doesn't pull until jojo arrives. >> reporter: she knows she needs to wait for jojo's help. not to dis my 2-year-old son, but i'm not sure he'd get that. elephants understand what they're doing, and that's what's amazing. they can think a problem through.

here's neh-oon. she's 5 years old. >> she actually figured out very quickly, i just need to use my foot. >> reporter: she stands on the end while her buddy does the work. not sure i'd get that. whoever called elephants dumbo? >> these guys aren't dumb at all. >> reporter: smart enough to know how to work together and smart enough to know how to goof off. nick watt, abc news, london. >> i think you sell yourself short, nick, maybe your son too. thank you all for watching tonight. good to start the week with you. and we are always on at abcnews.com. be sure to watch "nightline" as well later tonight, and we'll two new allegations for police misconduct and video. the growing number of cases that have been dropped. >> in sacramento governor brown hope to have had a budget vote by this thursday.

but republicans who were ready to support it now declare an impass. >> and dog owners unleash their anger. >> researcher was an alternative theory about alzheimer's disease. what it might take to control or reverse it. >> there is new accusations of police misconduct in san francisco. >> there are two new under cover officers whose conduct is being questioned. abc 7's vic lee has the latest developments. >> the list appears to be growing. we've learned one case involved a drug arrest supposed to go to trial next week. but the d.a.dropped it because officers in that case are the same ones under investigation. now the second case happened p early december a t